Going Down

Cool cool cool! We're officially signed up to head to Australia for just over two weeks in March. What started out as a plan to fly in style on Singapore Airlines, aboard one of the new Airbus A-380's, with an overnight stop/day of sightseeing in Singapore before heading on to Sydney, fairly rapidly devolved into us flying a budget airline direct from Osaka to Sydney. Whatever though, we're excited.

We're flying an Australian budget airline called Jet Star. No food, no entertainment, barely a baggage allowance; there website states in all seriousness that there is a water fountain with paper cups located in the cabin. But hell, after our annual 14-20 hour treks between the west coast of Japan and the east coast of America, the 9-ish hour slog to Sydney is very tolerable.

So it's time to brush up on (er, learn) my Australian geography, and figure out what exactly it is we want to do down there. We be shacking up with a friend of mine in Sydney for some portion of the trip, and hopefully will venture out a bit from the city and see some of the less developed areas. Though in all honesty, I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about. Too boot, it'll be summer time there, and crappy gray Kanazawa here, so it's a good time to get out of town.



On an unrelated note, please watch this video. I stumbled across it the other day and it cracked me up. It's some guy in Osaka walking around and pretending to shoot people, and then he switches to a samurai sword I think. What makes this hilarious of course are the reactions of the people. You may have to be familiar with the reputation of Osaka-folk to find this amusing, I'm not sure. While Japanese from Tokyo and the surround Kanto area are generally regarded as uptight and stereotypically Japanese. People from Osaka, on the other hand, are notoriously, what's the word...fun? A little crazy? Maybe less rigid than typical Japanese? Just watch the video, and look out for the guy who comes walking out of the Lawson convenience store.